Website Disclaimer & Privacy Policy

General Disclaimer

The City of Gardner (City) website is intended to provide a public service to City of Gardner citizens, visitors, potential business owners and any others who may be interested in our City. This website is intended to provide general information about the City of Gardner, its functions, programs and services. All reasonable measures are taken to ensure the quality and accuracy of the information presented here. However, due to the possibility of unauthorized modification of the data, transmission errors, HTML browser incompatibilities, changes made since the last update to the Website, or other aspects of electronic communication that are beyond the City’s control, the City does not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided on its Website and is not liable for reliance on this information. In using this website, you agree that its information and services are provided “as is, as available” without warranty, express or implied, and that you use this site at your own risk.

The information and data included on the City of Gardner website have been compiled by City Staff from a variety of sources and are subject to change without notice. The City makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding the quality, content, completeness or adequacy of such information and data. Official records always take precedence over information contained in this website. Before making a decision based on information from this website, follow up with a review of official records to assure accuracy.

If misleading, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate information is brought to our attention, a reasonable effort will be made to fix or remove it. Such concerns should be addressed to the webmaster.

Link Disclaimer

Some pages may provide external website links to various community, regional and governmental organizations that may be of interest to users of this website. These links are provided as a courtesy for the convenience of the users. The City of Gardner does not necessarily endorse these organizations, nor does it control the content of the linked websites. The City of Gardner reserves the right to deny any and all requests for links and to sever existing links at any time.

Privacy Statement

Your privacy with respect to the use of this website results from a partnership between the City of Gardner and you, the user. At this website, we attempt to protect your privacy to the maximum extent possible. However, because some of the information that we receive through this website is subject to Public Records Law, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 66, Section 10, we cannot ensure absolute privacy. If the information that you provide to us through this site is subject to this law, then it may be made available to the public by others who are subject to the law. This policy informs you of the information that we collect from you at this site, what we do with it, to whom it may be disseminated and how you can access it. Based on this information, you can make an informed choice about your use of this site. You can maximize the benefits of your privacy partnership with the City of Gardner by making informed choices about whether to share personally identifiable information with us through this site.

Personally Identifiable Information

We use the term “personally identifiable information” to mean any information that could reasonably be used to identify you, including your name, address, email address, Social Security number, birth date, bank account information, credit card information or any combination of information that could be used to identify you.

Information Voluntarily Provided by You

This site collects voluntary information from you only through the emails (for example, the Contact Us Form) that you send through this site. Emails sent by you to this site will contain personally identifiable information. While the Contact Us Form allows comments providing only a name and email address, the IP address is also logged when your message is transmitted.

Information Automatically Collected and Stored by this Site

This site does not currently collect “cookies” but does collect and store indefinitely your internet Protocol (“IP”) address, (which does not identify you as an individual), as well as information about the date and time of your visit, whether a file you have requested exists, and how many “bytes” of information were transmitted to you over the web from this site. We use your IP address to assess the frequency of visits to this site and the popularity of its various pages and functions. IP addresses may also be used to help prevent a high numbers of multiple votes within the user poll system. We will not attempt to match any personally identifiable information that you provide to us with your IP address, unless there are reasonable grounds to believe that doing so would provide information that is relevant and material to a criminal investigation.

Dissemination of Your Personally Identifiable Information

We do not sell any personally identifiable information collected through this website. However, once you voluntarily submit personally identifiable information to us through an email, its dissemination is governed by applicable laws and regulations.

The information that you voluntarily submit will be disclosed only to City of Gardner employees or officials with a “need to know” for purposes of fulfilling their responsibilities. They will only use the information to answer your questions, respond to any requests for assistance and fulfill the City of Gardner’s legal obligations. Where appropriate, we may provide the information submitted by you to the person or company that is the subject of your inquiry or to a government agency responsible for the matters referred to in your communication.

Security

Because this site does not encrypt incoming email, you should not send information that you consider highly sensitive through this website. We may use software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.

Contact Information

Questions about this policy should be addressed to the Mayor’s Office.

Policy Changes

We will post substantive changes to this policy before they take effect. Any information we collect under the current privacy policy will remain subject to the terms of this policy. After any changes take effect, all new information we collect, if any, will be subject to the new policy.

Definitions

Cookies are files that a website can place on your computer. A cookie file contains unique information that a website can use to track such things as your password, lists of web pages you have visited and the date when you last looked at a specific web page or to identify you session at a particular website. A cookie file allows the website to recognize you as you click through pages on the site and when you later revisit the site. A website can use cookies to “remember” your preferences and to record your browsing behavior on the web. Although you can prevent websites from placing cookies on your computer by using your browser’s preference menu, disabling cookies may affect your ability to view or interact with some websites.

An “internet Protocol Address” or “IP Address” is a series of numbers that identifies each computer and machine connected to the internet. An IP address enables a server on a computer network to send you the file that you have requested on the internet. The IP address disclosed to us may identify the computer from which you are accessing the internet or a server owned by your internet Service Provider. Because it is machine-specific, rather than person-specific, an IP address is not, in and of itself, personally identifiable information.

Copyright

Unless a copyright is indicated, information on the City of Gardner website is in the public domain and may be reproduced, published or otherwise used with the permission of the City of Gardner. We request only that the City of Gardner be cited as the source of the information and that any photo credits, graphics or byline be similarly credited to the photographer, author or City of Gardner, as appropriate.

Site Comments

The City of Gardner appreciates questions, comments and any other feedback that will help us serve you better. If there is something that is not on this website that you feel we should provide; if you have suggestions on how to improve anything about this website; or if you found something wrong with the information on this website, such as outdated or incorrect information, missing documents or information located in the wrong place, please use the Send Us Comments link. Please be sure to include the URL of the page when reporting the problem.

Acceptance

The use of the City of Gardner website indicates your unconditional acceptance of the above disclaimers and statements. You further agree that the City of Gardner and its Staff have no liability for direct, indirect, incidental, punitive or consequential damages with respect to the information, services or content contained on or otherwise accessed through this website.